Economic materialism

In Anarchism: What It Really Stands For, Emma Goldman states: “Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak authoritatively of human nature”. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, two of the most influential modern philosophers, presumed to speak authoritatively on human nature. They presumed so much so, that each of the philosophers dedicated the bulk of a novel to discussing their interpretation of human nature. In fact,…

Molinism and open theism Molinism is the theory regrading God’s knowledge. The details are as follows. Molinisim says that God have middle knowledge, which are the counterfactual conditionals of human beings. These counterfactual conditionals are not within God’s control. Feasible worlds are a subset of possible worlds. Feasible worlds are the worlds that God can actualise and must be consistent with the conditionals. Open theism doesn’t agree that God knows future contingent truths. God does…

Bertrand Russell begins The Problems with Philosophy seemingly simple, but an complicated question: “Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?” ( Russell 236) This question is the basis of his lengthy argument stating that we, as humans, will always ask if we are perceiving the truth, and will always continue to investigate this matter. While bringing in many opinions of famous philosophers, Russell sets forth an argument made by Bishop…

their lives. The main hindrance to their own personal discoveries is materialism. Materialism prevents the characters from flying by "weigh[ing] [them] down" the way a peacock with "all th[e] jewelry" on its tail "weighs it down" (Morrison 179). The only way for the peacock to "soar" is to relieve itself of its "jewelry" much like Milkman, Hagar, and Pilate are only able to find purpose in their lives after shedding materialism (283,179). Milkman is in a constant battle with himself and what…

In this philosophical study, an evaluation of the dualistic ideology of “good and evil” will be examined in Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. Hobbes effectively defines the skeptical aspects of human nature, which define human beings as a innately war=like and self-interested. These facts define the role of the “passions” in human behavior, which attempt to discern between the appetites and aversions of human choice, which force them to choose between an evil or a good co-existence with their fellow…

In continuing his explanation, Tinder points to one of the masters of this mode of thinking: Thomas Hobbes. According to Hobbesian philosophy, human life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” and ones essence is that of eternal war against all others (Tinder 27). Hobbes breaks his understanding of human nature down further by explaining that there is a psychological and ontological level of estrangement (Tinder 27-28). The psychological level of ones estrangement exists because all…

society feels because of the illusion of merriment in wealth and dependency on materials. The movie and the character embody naturalistic ideals since physical commodities dictate his life. However, the conjunction of Christianity, naturalism, and materialism are not justifiable based on a Christian…

Margaret Atherton does however, explore Berkeley’s argument as one in which is stated reasonably and coherently color does exist as a part of objects, or in other words that “snow is actually white”, and that this theory is better than previous philosophical theory. I will give a summary of her arguments before asserting my opinion that Berkeley’s argument far more beneficial to objectivists than to the whole of color theory In the world of color existing, Atherton describes two dichotomous…

A) Gertler’s “In Defense of Mind- Body Dualism” In this essay, I will be defending Brie Gertler in her dualist stance on the mind – body problem. In the paper, Gertler argues that, “it is possible that pain occurs in a disembodied being.” She starts off talking about this argument by giving the example of stubbing ones toe. She then states that even someone who has had both of their feet amputated can still share this toe stubbing experience. She gives example to show a particular instance where…

1.) Distinguish vitalism from materialism and explain the doctrine of specific energies of nerves. Vitalism is a belief that a life force or “vital force” existed that goes beyond the physical and chemical components of living organisms and in some part is self determining. These life energies are transmitted through the nervous system and were believed to be instantaneous. Opposed to vitalism, materialism states that physical reality is the only reality and that living matter can be…